In my previous post I wrote about my search for the Reddish Egret. This morning while awaiting sunrise, I decided it would be fun to see if I could find some additional Reddish Egrets. Like many birding excursions, things took an unexpected but fun twist. eBird sightings revealed that “red” had been seen in some local ponds at the Estero Bay Preserve State Park. Better yet, this park was less than a 20 minute drive from my AirBnB.

You guessed it, I quickly drove over and much to my delight discovered Estero Bay was a park which was 100% undeveloped, and had some hiking trails that let through sparse deciduous hardwoods to salt water marshes and ponds … once again like the prior morning this park / nature preserve was 100% my own … nary another person. This was not a developed park, but a wildlife preserve.

Very quickly I discovered raptors very much liked the habitat which had great hunting perches. After hiking to the first pond, I became distracted with Loggerhead Shrikes. Apparently down here in South Florida it is courting time for shrikes. These songbirds with an attitude (Loggerhead Shrikes … Cornell Link). The female Loggerheads would sit atop various perches while their prospective mates would deliver food! Super fun to watch and document.

Loggerhead Shrike #1

Loggerhead Shrikes #2 and #3.